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I am an anthropologist and lawyer (MA, U. Pennsylvania, 1986; JD, Georgetown U., 1989; Ph.D., U. Virginia, 2003), specializing in historical archaeology as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My research projects address aspects of African-American cultural heritage and the dynamics of social group affiliations among African Americans and European Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These research initiatives include the development of interpretative frameworks focusing on diaspora studies, regional systems theories, theories concerning social group identities, ethnic group dynamics and racialization, stylistic and symbolic analysis of material culture, and the significance of consumption patterns.
In addition to teaching courses in anthropology and archaeology, my faculty work includes: faculty affiliate of the Center for African Studies and the Department of African American Studies, offering courses addressing African diaspora subjects and issues of racialization; member of the College of Law faculty, offering interdisciplinary seminars for graduate and law students; and affiliate faculty member of the Department of Landscape Architecture, offering courses on landscape analysis and surveying techniques. Publications, including recent books, research papers, and works in progress, are listed in my resume. I am the editor of the African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter, a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, and a member of the board of directors of the University of Illinois' Collaborative for Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices. I received the 2009 John L. Cotter Award by the Society for Historical Archaeology for scholarly "achievement which is truly outstanding."
I am also collaborating on a multi-year research project concerning the social history of New Philadelphia, Illinois, a demographically integrated town founded by a free African American in 1836. This project offers archaeology field schools funded by the National Science Foundation. Other new initiatives are focusing potential long-term research on Brooklyn, Illinois, the first incorporated black town, the African-American settlement of Equal Rights outside Galena, Illinois, and African-American craft innovations in the Edgefield Pottery District in South Carolina. Please follow the links below for information on my archaeology projects in Illinois, Virginia and West Virginia, an award-winning internet archive focusing on the history and archaeology of the Plymouth Colony, resources I've created for the African Diaspora Archaeology Network, and course materials.
"Early African America: Archaeological Studies of Significance and Diversity," an invited synthesis and review article for Journal of Archaeological Research (in press, 2010).
"Damaging Detours: Routes, Racism and New Philadelphia," in New Philadelphia: Racism, Community, and the Illinois Frontier, a specially edited thematic issue, Historical Archaeology 44(1): 138-154 (2010).
"Combating Attempts of Elision: African American Accomplishments at New Philadelphia, Illinois," invited chapter in Intangible Heritage Embodied, edited by D. Fairchild Ruggles and Helaine Silverman, peer reviewed publication by Springer Press, pp. 147-168 (2009). (.pdf of chapter excerpt and volume table of contents and contributors).
"African Diaspora Archaeology in Multiscalar and Multivariate Perspectives," introductory chapter in African Diaspora Archaeology, an invited book compiled and edited by C. Fennell. Society for Historical Archaeology (2008).
Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World, with a foreword by Robert Farris Thompson. University Press of Florida (2007).
"BaKongo Identity and Symbolic Expression in the Americas," an invited chapter in The Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Toyin Falola and Akin Ogundiran, pp. 210-50, Indiana University Press (2007).
"Fear and Greed in Tax Policy: A Qualitative Research Agenda," with Lee A. Fennell, Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 13: 75-138 (2003) (.pdf).
"Group Identity, Individual Creativity and Symbolic Generation in a BaKongo Diaspora," International Journal of Historical Archaeology 7(1): 1-31 (2003) (.pdf).
"Assessing Criticisms of Faunal Analyses and Environmental Reconstructions in the Tehuacán Valley Project," Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal 29(3): 349-59 (2001) (.pdf).
"Conjuring Boundaries: Inferring Past Identities from Religious Artifacts," International Journal of Historical Archaeology 4(4): 281-313 (2000) (.pdf). |
Last updated: January 2, 2010
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